For Manufacturers, Comprehensive Zero Trust Makes Economic Sense

Summary

Cybersecurity is presenting greater challenges for operational technology (OT) organizations. Cybercriminals have begun to increasingly target the manufacturing sector in particular; Palo Alto Networks’ 2023 Unit 42 Extortion and Ransomware Report found that this industry is one of the most deeply affected by extortion attacks.
 
Industrial automation continues its forward momentum, spurring further growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and manufacturers’ investment in scalable, next-generation technologies. Though companies are trying to transform as quickly as possible, they must not push cybersecurity aside in their rush toward competitive advantage. More robust security isn’t merely a requirement, as it also has a financial impact.

Current risk to the OT environment

For manufacturers, digital transformation has meant a huge uptick in OT assets–once air-gapped for security reasons–now connected to their internal networks. These new connections enable new business information and insights, the running of critical infrastructure and maximum efficiency. New connections include distributed control systems (DCS), industrial control systems (ICS) and remote terminal units (RTUs). These previously air-gapped systems lack default security measures. Their traffic is not encrypted, and visibility into their functioning is low.
 
For the infrastructure supporting manufacturing operations, security is essential. If operations are compromised, it may result in loss of revenue, defective products, physical harm to employees or impaired critical services to customers.
 
When security fails, it’s costly. The 2023 breach of the Clorox Company caused significant system disruptions and subsequent product delays, costing the company $49 million, according to SEC filings. And that’s likely a rough estimate. Meanwhile, aluminum and renewable energy company Norsk-Hydro lost $75 million due to a ransomware attack, while FACC AG, an aerospace parts manufacturer, suffered a phishing scam that cost them $61 million. Headlines about such attacks are all too common, and there’s more at stake than money. Critical facilities shut downs and possible risk to human health resulted from attacks on Colonial Pipeline, CPC Corp., the Ukraine power grid, Triton and the San Francisco MUNI light rail system.
 

A better approach to cybersecurity for manufacturing

Security teams at manufacturing organizations need a tool that increases visibility of their OT assets. The solution should assist teams with finding and itemizing their OT networks’ unique assets and with quickly evaluating vulnerabilities and threats. In addition, the tool should be able to improve the deterrence of threats–known and unknown–and also create and automate Zero Trust policies that protect OT assets and the corporate network.
 
What teams need is a comprehensive solution that offers the most secure approach possible:

• Get holistic visibility: To view and assess the OT/ICS threat landscape, use context-rich, accurate visibility of all users, apps and assets. Combining passive identification technology, machine learning (ML) and crowdsourced telemetry allows you to quickly evaluate and assign risk for all that you can now see.
• Use a Zero Trust approach: For remote operations at plants and remote sites, as well as for OT and 5G assets, a Zero Trust security approach is ideal. Create policies and processes to apply Zero Trust, such as automatic policy enforcement. In situations where policy enforcement is difficult, like in the physical process through control levels of the Purdue Model, use segmentation. It’s also useful to use segmentation for continuous trust verification of communications, enforcement of “least privilege” access policies, and continuous threat inspection. In fact, a recent survey on the State of OT Security conducted by Palo Alto Networks and ABI Research found that 87% of industrial respondents believe Zero Trust is the right approach for securing OT environments.
• Streamline security: Use a centralized platform from one vendor to simplify security deployment and operations. Ensure that it will work with your IT and OT facilities’ architecture. More and more organizations are moving to this approach; as the aforementioned study found, over 70% of respondents said they plan to consolidate IT and OT solutions from the same cybersecurity vendor.

Stronger security’s three advantages for manufacturing

Though creating a stronger security framework  for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) using the principles noted above could be seen as an end in itself, it offers three more noteworthy advantages. One is being able to attain ROI more quickly. With the right mix of security tools, you can hasten your IIoT investment return, since they address the security hurdles that can hinder the adoption of IIoT, SD-WAN and 5G.
 
Another advantage is fiscal in nature. It's easier to integrate with existing technologies if you use a platform approach. It also reduces the complexity of policy creation and management–and can leverage automation to help reduce both capital expenditures and operating expenses. The analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group noted that an OT security tool can demonstrate a 351% ROI over five years.
 
Reduced downtime is the third advantage. If operations are down, it's not possible to deliver services or generate revenue. An ML-driven tool can find and mitigate risks that you might not see otherwise, which could leave ransomware or other threats unchecked and result in downtime. Having an ML-based tool can help you avert large-scale attacks and their consequent lost production time.

See ROI faster with OT security

Though manufacturers may put security in the “cost center” column, such technology investments can increase productivity and should be moved to the ROI column. A lack of proper cybersecurity infrastructure can cost far more than your initial investment. Absent the traditional air gap for OT, you need holistic security solutions that offer simpler operations, visibility and Zero Trust security. Implementing a platform-based approach and ML capabilities will help your IT security team to protect your digital assets and also see faster ROI.